In the lead-up to the 2024 elections, John Dramani Mahama, who was the leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), accused Ministers under the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government of the people behind illegal mining.
As a result, the then-candidate Mahama promised to grant all persons imprisoned for galamsey amnesty.
He promised to reform them and ensure that they have something else to do apart from illegal mining.
The then-candidate John Dramani Mahama haunted Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to fix the menace as the buck stopped with him.
“I will grant amnesty to people convicted of Galamsey because those who are imprisoned for galamsey are not the actual perpetrators of galamsey. If somebody must be imprisoned, it must be he DCE, Ministers who are doing the galamsey and not the people they are employing,” he told the media during an engagement prior to election 2024.
